Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Larry Boots, Exterminator
AUTHOR: John Inman
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 198 Pages
RELEASE DATE: June 4, 2019
BLURB:
Kenny Long is living a new life. Blinded in an accident, he has taken control of his unexpected reality the best way he can, and it’s working out better than he hoped.
Of course Larry Boots doesn’t know any of that. All he sees is a beautiful man sitting on a park bench.
Larry has a few problems of his own: his mother. His job. The lack of romance in his life.
His job. In the course of that job, Larry strikes up a friendship with Kenny. The next thing he knows, he’s so head-over-heels in love, even his mother doesn’t seem so bad. Of course his career is still a problem, but he’s working on that. Hopefully he’ll have the problem resolved before the man he’s being paid to murder succeeds in murdering him first.
And before the man he loves finds out he’s a cold-blooded killer.
REVIEW:
I’m no stranger to a John Inman story, but when I pick up one of his books I expect one of two things. Either something dark and maybe a bit scary like Willow Man or The Hike, or something hilarious and cute like the Belladonna Arms series. Larry Boots, Exterminator gives us a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B.
Larry is a hitman, but not like some type of militarized assassin, it’s just something he kinda fell into organically. After losing his brother to murder, Larry has taken it upon himself to help those who need revenge against killers who have taken their loved ones. He’s been doing this work for six years now, ridding the world of pedophiles, rapists and murderers who have evaded jail time. But even after six years of helping grieving parents get justice, he still cries after taking a life. In fact, Larry is probably the sweetest, most honest hitman I’ve ever come across, and it doesn’t hurt that he has two elderly poodles named Chuck and François.
While Kenny is very much present, and their romance is the focus of this story, for me, it was all about Larry. His internal musings kept me endlessly entertained, and like the rest of this book, his inner chatter was very much a mix of sweet and… well, hitman. The characters, the scenes, they all swung from murder, to adorable, to making me laugh out loud. It really could have ended up a disjointed mess, but Mr. Inman made it all work brilliantly. You never realy knew what the start of a new chapter would bring.
I especially loved the scene at the zoo, Kenny’s almost childlike wonder at getting to hear all of the animals. It was one of those scenes that makes you feel like you’re experiencing something along with the characters. And speaking of characters, Larry’s mother surely needs her own special mention. Gladys Bootchinski, the cocktail slurping, potsmoking, ex-hippie with a penchant for garden gnomes. I love it when authors create a character that you desperately wish was real so you could claim them for your own family.
I’m really glad that I read this book, it was a treat, for sure.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: